New drop in service to bring former Garscube residents together

A new drop in service has opened its doors to former residents of Turning Point Scotland’s Garscube House.

The residential unit based in the Maryhill area of Glasgow provides a long term alcohol rehabilitation service for 10 people who are homeless and have a history of alcohol dependence.

It is hoped the new service will bring former residents together through a number of activities to ensure they continue to make progress in their recovery and know how to cope if they experience a relapse.

Failure to engage in meaningful support and activities after some people have left the service left them more open to negative experiences such isolation, problems managing a budget and lack of opportunities to find work.

The service had previously decided to look at the experiences of people who have been through the programme and examine how useful they felt their time at the residential unit had been.

A survey was carried using face to face interviews and questionnaires and the information collated was published as a report that is now available called the Garscube House Former Residents Survey. The establishment of the drop in facility was one of the recommendations of the report.

The Garscube House Peer Support Group will cover a number of areas like SMART recovery sessions, relapse prevention boredom & isolation, basic computing skills, peer sharing, budgeting & benefits and yoga.

Some start up funding was provided by the Glasgow ADP Communities Sub-group GRAND.

Service Manager at Garscube House, Elaine Forbes said:

“One of the most interesting findings from the survey was the amount of people who have managed to maintain some form of stability in their lives and continue to sustain their tenancy even although they have lapsed.

It is clear that those who have lapsed have not returned to their previous chaotic patterns of drinking.

Hopefully the new drop in service will encourage peer support, enhance social networks for individuals, increase confidence and support continued positive recovery.”